Photography is an old and well-known art in which many advances in cameras for both professional and amateur photographers have been made. However, the taking of high quality upper torso and full face close-up portraits of a human or animal subject has generally been dependent upon the knowledge and skill of a professional or highly skilled amateur having the necessary lighting assemblies typically used in a studio setting.
While there are certain options of lighting arrangements known and used by experience professional photographers to obtain certain highlight effects, the simple upper torso and full face portrait type shot typically requires a good reflected light source from a frontal position relative to the subject being photographed in opposing relationship to the primary light source.
Further, to obtain appropriate lighting one must closely duplicate the arrangement of the necessary primary light source and reflectors typically found only in a professional studio relative to distance between the primary light source, the reflectors used, the subject and the desired background. The knowledge of properly setting up such an arrangement is essentially limited to professional and highly experienced photographers. However, even these professional photographers are often limited to taking such photographs in their studios as it is quite inconvenient and cumbersome to transport the necessary accessories to another setting.
With respect to the conventional reflectors employed, at least one and more typically two or more planar light reflecting surfaces angularly disposed relative to one another, are used for indirect or reflected lighting set ups, particularly for close facial photographs. A single ball-shaped reflected image appears in the eye from the primary light source. However, a long-standing problem with the type of universally used planar or flat reflector is the generally round or ball-shaped reflected image which appears in the subject's eye from each separate, flat reflector surface used in an assembly. Such additional ball-shaped images are undesirable and require touch-up techniques to reduce or eliminate their detracting appearance.
Prior to the present invention, there has been an unfilled need for an indirect lighting assembly which eliminates the prior undesirable or detracting reflected images which appear in the eyes of the subject photographed while still providing appropriate indirect lighting from an opposing direction relative to the primary light source. Further there has been a need for a portable booth assembly which can be conveniently assembled and disassembled for use by both professional and amateur photographers which enhances the taking of good quality photographs.